ID fraud gang broken up

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A good samaritan who handed a lost CD wallet into his local
police station gave police the clues they needed to crack
Australia's largest identity fraud ring.

Federal and state police on Wednesday charged two men and raided
five properties, seizing thousands of forged documents and computer
templates used to create fake identities.

The $50 million collection of fake visa, Medicare and driver's
licence computer programs has been declared the largest identity
fraud haul in Australia.

But it may not have come to light without a chance roadside
discovery by a pedestrian more than five months ago.

NSW Acting Fraud Squad commander Col Dyson said on Thursday that
a good samaritan had picked up the misplaced CD wallet on a street
in Ashfield, in Sydney's inner west, in the hope it could be
returned to the owner.

"The police looked at the content of those discs and realised
they'd discovered a lot of identity templates used to produce fake
licences, visas and Medicare cards," Det Insp Dyson said.

Det Insp Dyson said it was not yet known if the users were
creating fake names or taking over people's identities.

"The legitimate identity of a person (could be) taken over for
fraudulent intentions," he said.

"That's why we constantly (warn people) to look after your
personal information because people could be planning to use your
personal information to open accounts or raid your own bank
account."

Federal Agent Craig Mann said the documents were high quality,
complete with watermarks, holograms and other duplicated security
features.

"They certainly have the capability to produce documents that
would be extremely difficult to detect, to the point where we would
be relying on database verification to check them," Mann told
reporters.

In their search of a graphic design company and commercial
printers, officers also found piles of allegedly forged documents,
including high-quality reproductions of bank letterheads.

Mann said the documents would have been used with the ID cards
to build the points needed as proof of identity.

"This is the largest single seizure that we've made ... of that
scale where almost every proof of identity document in Australia
has been found in the one location," he said.

A 51-year-old Newtown man will appear in Sydney's Central Local
Court on December 10 and a 40-year-old Balmain man will face the
same court on December 15.

The men were each charged with 236 offences under Commonwealth
and state laws, and were formally refused bail today.

A third person arrested during the raids - a 36-year-old
Bellevue Hill woman - will appear in court at a later date on five
drug charges.